Innehållsförteckning för August 2021 från Hot Rod

I’ve heard it said by prominent psychologists and philosophers that the meaning of life is to struggle. That’s not what you’d expect to hear from someone waxing poetic on theories of why we’re here. It’s true, though. We as human beings need a mission: obstacles to overcome, hills to climb, troubled seas to navigate…pick your metaphor. Think about it—all our epic stories and religious traditions are tales of people struggling against the odds, and often to their peril. All the best movies and popular TV shows have this as a central theme. In the automotive world, entire genres of wrench-throwing car “building” shows are built upon the basic concept of struggle. Why? We can all relate, of course. Case in point: flip to the back of this issue and read…

Tied and true and traditional are the words Joe Rebozzi uses to describe the hot rods he has owned, built, driven, and been involved with. The words definitely apply to his 1932 Ford roadster. Joe has been in the hot rod hobby since the ’70s, but his taste—judging by the details of this Deuce highboy—seems to be planted in the early ’60s. We’re talking about the last years of that golden era of hot rodding between the end of World War II and the beginning of the muscle car years. Now, 20 years into the 21st century, rodders are building period-inspired roadsters like Joe’s with up-to-date advantages they didn’t have 60 years ago. Neither Roy Brizio nor Joe Rebozzi wanted radical body modifications that would move the Deuce away from…

Barn finds are something we all dream about discovering, but few of us actually do. Today the term “barn find” refers to any really cool classic car that’s found stuffed away in some dusty corner, so it doesn’t actually have to be a barn, although that is a pretty cool bonus if so. This barn find is pretty iconic: an RS/SS big-block 396 (325 hp) 1969 Camaro. It was built at the Van Nuys, California, assembly plant and originally sold by Bob Coyle Chevrolet in San Jose, California. The great news is that this Camaro came with a ton of original documents including the original Protect-O-Plate! While the original sales invoice was lost to time, we could see where the second owners bought the Camaro from a Volkswagen dealership’s used…

Of all the things you can do for your classic car, restoring the interior is one of the easiest. Improving the cockpit will have an immediate, dramatic effect on the enjoyment factor, which is the whole point of owning a classic car in the first place. In our opinion, of all the cars you could choose for such a simple weekend interior rehab, a Plymouth Duster or other Mopar A-Body is among the simplest. Introduced to the public as an all-new compact vehicle platform in the fall of 1963 as a 1964 model, the new A-Body Plymouth Valiant was Chrysler’s answer to the wholesale downsizing that took hold of the auto industry in the early 1960s. Similar to what would happen a decade later, cars like the Valiant, Ford Falcon,…

Rare and desirable Mopars just don’t hide in plain sight anymore, and the days when you could drive around and find some nice cars are virtually a thing of the past. It was in that distant past that Doug Schneider found his 1972 Plymouth Road Runner GTX. Yes, you read correctly, in 1972 that was an option. Doug wasn’t looking for a car when he stumbled on the Road Runner, but that’s often how it happens. He recalls, “I found the car accidentally on a fishing trip in Idaho in 2003. I got lost in the mountains, so I pulled into a driveway to turn around, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the taillights, so I stopped and had a look. Parked next to it was…

Choosing the right axle housing for your project car is an important part of the process. After all, the axle not only transmits power from your engine, it also supports the back of the car and provides the mounting points for your rear suspension. As such, it’s subjected to substantial lateral and rotational forces. In short, it needs to be strong enough for what you have planned. As the power levels go up, and as you drive the car or truck harder, you need a housing that will suck up the abuse. This means you need to focus on more than price. You need to look at the materials used and how the bits are all stitched together. We’re building a Pro Touring 1969 Camaro and will be driving it…

The flathead is dead. At least that’s what they used to say back in the mid-’50s as legions of modern overhead valve V8s leaped out of wrecked passenger cars and onto the hot rod scene. But as they often say, everything old is new again. So here we are in the 21st century, and interest in Ford’s 21- and 24-stud flatheads has likely never been stronger since the immediate post-World War II era. A major cause is simple burnout—as growing numbers of hot rodders and street rodders are just plain tired of sticking small-block and LS engines in everything and calling it a done deal. Uniqueness, tradition, and a need to blaze a new trail have led legions of grease monkeys (like us) to take a second look at the…

Before there was a Camaro, before there was even a Chevy II or Nova, the Corvair was Chevrolet’s sporty compact. In this look back, Drew Hardin tells us about the efforts to turn a 1962 Corvair into a performance powerhouse. Yes, it was kind of funky looking, and yes, it had an air-cooled engine that was mounted in the “wrong” end of the car, but there were a lot of go-fast goodies offered for the Corvair in its day. Tuners ranging from old-school hot rodders like Barney Navarro to Chevy dealer/racer Don Yenko all tried their hand at making the Corvair faster through competition. In November 1961, the editors from several Petersen Publishing magazines, including HOT ROD, MotorTrend, Sports Car Graphic, Car Craft, and Rod & Custom, gathered at Riverside…

Steve Strope spotted this 1964 Oldsmobile while driving down the main drag in Simi Valley, California. It was parked in front of a local motorcycle dealership. Stopping to look, Steve found out the car was for sale, and ended up buying it for $3,000. He knew that the completely stock F85 Cutlass, with a 330ci engine and two-speed automatic transmission, was the perfect starting point for a simple, low-budget build-up that he had been thinking about. He already had a name in mind: Project Long Weekend. Steve had two reasons for building Project Long Weekend. The first was to have a great-looking, low-buck street machine he could be proud of and drive wherever and whenever he wanted. The second reason was to prove a point. Steve happens to own Pure…

One of the unique things about unibody construction is that everything is connected to everything else. The entire body shell works as a single unit to distribute the operational forces throughout the structure. The design is lightweight and surprisingly strong considering that nearly everything is made from formed sheetmetal. Although more layers and interconnected parts are great for strength, they can be a hassle to replace or repair. Moisture and dirt can reach into the deepest parts of a car’s inner workings to create rust in the most inaccessible places. This 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda rolled into Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) looking for its second makeover. Having been restored once before, it had clearly outlived that experience and was in need of another refresh. Parts that may have still been solid…

Roadkill @davidfreiburger Wow! Yesterday I conquered a career-long goal and defeated a 37-year-old land-speed record to become a member of the El Mirage 200 MPH Club. Like most HOT ROD readers, my first and initially only exposure to land-speed racing was through the pages of the magazine when I was a young teen. My generation read about people such as Al Teague and Barry Kaplan in the prose of HOT ROD’s Ol’ Dad, Gray Baskerville. He drew a mental picture of the glories of racing for top mph upon Southern California’s hard-packed silt dry lakes and he turned the Bonneville Salt Flats into the center point of all that was important in the gearhead world. I bought in. I was incredibly fortunate to have made my first trip to Speed…